Good Morning! I have gotten my exercise done today - 30 minutes on the treadmil for right now. I did get my picture downloaded of my new tattoo here it is, sorry it is big but I couldn't get it to downsize for some reason

13 is my oldest sons race car number and 55 is my DH's and youngest sons racing number. Racing has been part of the family since 1987 when DH started and the boys started racing go carts back in 1997 but now they are older and have moved onto race cars. We all have fun and spend good family time together since neither of them are living at home now.

I am going to love this challenge this week, I am feeling motivated and I know I need to lose at least 2 pounds. Setting mind to it....

Faux won't see this probably but a big for her. I hope she makes it back stronger than ever.

I am about to hit the track and get a FULL HOUR of walking in...I was watching a rerun of a weight loss show on TV where they do a physical challenge at the beginning and end of their journey to see improvements. I decided to make myself a nice little chart and make today my "before" challenge to see how fast I can walk 4 miles. I will reassess that before starting the official 1/2 marathon training, and then like once a month up to the marathon.

Physical goals tend to motivate me more than weight goals, so this will be good for me. I will be competing against myself!

Purple - That is a GREAT idea! I may have to steal the idea for one of the longer challenges.....do you mind???

Hey all!
At the moment I'm snacking on apple slices w/ PB & water -- I love it! Especially crunchy PB. I'll have to go back & work on this week's mini challenge but I wanted to share with you all my motivation from now until August. My Mom & I went to the Grand Opening of a new Ross by her house & I found the summer dress for my inlaws anniversary party. I bought it in a size 14 hoping that's what I'll be by August. Last night I tried it on to see how far I have to go & I was able to get it all the way on & it zipped half way up my back. To top it all off -- it was only $12.99!!!

I think I'm confusing myself with this but it says I'm supposed to eat 1,713.5 calories a day so then I'll need to eat 1,513.5 calories a day to lose two pounds this week. I've never counted calories before but I will try. I just need to work out regularly again. So this week I will get back to my work out routine, I will get my water in, and I will attempt to count my calories.

Vanessa~very pretty dress!!!!

Faux~I will miss you and your humor

I love the dress! This is such a GREAT idea! What a way to really get motivated........

As for your calories...the 1713 is the amount of calories your body would burn in one day at your height and weight if all you did was lay in bed all day long and sleep......I'm guessing that you don't LOL...so I'm figuring that through out your daily routines (NOT INCLUDING EXERCIZE) you burn about 500 calories more than that (rough estimate) so....if you cut 200 calories from your BMR your cutting an average of 700 calories...if you can get 300 calories of exercise in voila....you have burned/cut 1000 calories in one day and you are well on your way to losing 2 pounds


If anyone is having trouble counting calories (i.e. can't find anything good to eat that is low in calories) come here and say so and maybe you can get some suggestions.

Vanessa- Cute dress! I actually have though about buying a outfit in a reasonable size and work toward trying to fit into it.

Chopper- The pic of the tatoo isnt working for me.

Ive gotta get back on track tommorow if im gonna do well this week. Today wasnt so good, I worked alot this past week and im pretty exhausted. I need to go to bed early tonight so I can make up for it some im ready to kick some butt tommorow.

Thanks for explaining to me Melissa... now I just have to try and count calories. I've seriously haven't done it well EVER so I don't know if I'll do it correctly. But I'll try tomorrow. Today's been shot already. I haven't counted a thing or exercised for that matter...

Heather - go for it, buy something to look forward to. Just go my route & buy something that's inexpensive. You don't want to feel guilty about the purchase! That won't make you feel good. If you're like me you'll feel good when you get an awesome deal

Okay... so I don't know if I start tomorrow at 7 or 7:30... they weren't very clear with me on Friday... guess I should call in at about 6:30 to find out. But at least I get to sleep in a little tomorrow... well kind of... I slept in today like it's nobody's business. Guess I was trying to make up for the whole week

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend & that your week starts off well!!!

i have been MIA for a few days.. i have a lot to catch up on! i weighed in under 200 on thursday. i was so excited. 199.8 actually. i didn't get on here for the weigh in tho i went back up too 200.8. i am sooo close i need to get moving. i had a few bad mental health days, that is why i haven't been on here. I have felt so yucky and been so busy doing house work, shopping etc this weekend that i didn't work out at all. grrr... i will be changing that tomorrow. i am so ready for the 2 pound challenge! now.. i need to read what i have missed for the past few days!

Hi everyone,

I ate way too much this weekend. There's always tomorrow. I went to a band parent party Saturday night and found out a bunch of people had lost their jobs. It was very upsetting. Of course eating isn't going to help anything.

I am doing okay with the exercise. I ran three miles on the outdoor track at the Y on Friday. It was cool to be able to run three miles but it left me exhausted. Not cool. I went to my usual class on Saturday but just skipped the Y today. I wanted to spend sometime making dinner for the family and I went for a walk with my neighbor. My husband will be travelling all week so I won't be able to spend as much time at the Y as I would like. All the more reason to be careful about what I eat this week.

Thanks for the challenge Melissa. I will try to keep my calorie within a losing range. Goodness knows I need to.

i can't believe that when i actually typed right in this box and sent a message without typing it in word first... i actually lost it... grrr...

so short version.. and maybe catch up on more later.

my plan ( a little late but will start tomorrow)

1. eat around 1500 calories a day (do my best to count, but i do write everything down)
2. drink around 80 oz of water daily
3. use elliptical for a minimum of 30 min a day (70 if DD doesn't have a fit) and walk and play outside on every day that it doesn't rain.

having a hard time with the calorie burning... my monitor says i burn a lot less than my elliptical, almost half as much. ex... work out 70 min and machine says i burn around 800-900 and my heart rate monitor says around 400-500. it dropped some when i lowered my weight, but i didn't think 12 pounds would make a huge difference. anyway... the elliptical is supposedly set up for a 150 lb person, that means i should burn more right? i am so confused... any suggestions or comments?

Vanessa- Yeah,good deals are always good. I love Ross too but we dont have any around here that I know of. I always shopped at them down there. Goodys was my absolute favorite store and they either are or almost out of business. grr.. lol.

Alex hot momma- Wow! 70 min in a eliptical. How the heck do you do it. I cant get past 10 min before im huffing and puffing. Dont you just hate when you almost reach a goal and you just cant get past it? About the calories on your eliptical the more you weigh the more you burn so if its equiped for a 150 pd person your not gonna burn as much as a 200 pd person.

Good morning!

I ate wayyy too much over the weekend. We went to visit friends and family to celebrate my husband's birthday, and I just didn't really care what I ate, since I was sort of depressed.

On Friday, my husband was laid off from the job that he's had a whole 2 weeks -- someone in corporate decided to eliminate the entire maintenance department at that hotel, which obviously was a surprise to EVERYONE or else they wouldn't have been hiring new people! What a birthday present for him.

AND now we're both sick. He's got it much worse than me, with a fever and all that. But I'm not going to let it stop me from focusing on losing weight -- I'm going to track my calories this week and keep it under control!

My goals:
1. The BMR calculator puts me at 1427, so I should eat 1227 a day.. I think my goal will be to fall in the range of 1200-1400.
2. Drink 1.5L of water a day.
3. I'm not setting an exercise goal right now since it's all I can do to get through a full day of work... but once I'm recovering I'll figure it out.

WOW!!!! I bet by Friday you are officially in ONEderland for good! Just think.....this week you are going to say goodbye to the 200's forEVER!!!!!

I can't wait! I am so happy for you!

First of all - Get well soon The flue has been going around my house for the past two weeks.....so I know what your going through! Secondly, I'm sorry to hear about your husbands job. It is happening ALOT all over the place.

Looks like your goals are set for the week Good job! Just get in some exercise when you feel better. I'm sure since you are sick you won't be eating as much so that should cancel out the exercise some....just get plenty of fluids and Vitamin C

You can do it heather.....just keep going and don't give up! I do 30 min. on the eliptical, but then I go to the treadmill.....I have a short attention span so I can't stay on any one machine for more than 30 min...unless I'm talking to someone and then it goes by fast...LOL

The taller you are / more you weigh / and younger you are the more calories you burn......ALSO....your heart rate depends on how many calories you burn.....two peole of the same height and weight can get on the same machine for the same amount of time and one burn more calories than the other if they had a higher heart rate for a longer period of time than the other one......Think of it as jogging 6 mph vs walking 2.5 mph.......6mph is harder and you burn more calories.....sooooooo I would say which ever one takes into consideration your weight, age, AND heart rate is the more accurate one. Hope this helped.